


all that i have

by clairedreems



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Gen, aeriseph as siblings, idk what i'm doing ngl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24500614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clairedreems/pseuds/clairedreems
Summary: before the scientists escort him out of the room, the strange little girl had beckoned him to come close and whispered to his ear, “i shaw you twain! bwader wassho cool! i twy wash nekush time!”and for the first time in his life, he finds himself smiling.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough & Sephiroth
Comments: 8
Kudos: 30





	all that i have

* * *

he was not… _normal. he_ knows that and has _known_ that since the time his young brain started understanding the small world around him.

people around him wore white coats every day. _scientists_. they question and prod him, stick needles in him, train him. one time they brought him to his mother, and all she did was look at him with palpable fear.

and he _understands_ , a bit, why she’s afraid of him. he understands why. he's cetra too - he could also hear the screams of the planet, that everything about him is wrong, _wrong_ . but he doesn’t understand what it is that’s wrong with him, and so he learns to ignore it. he learns _not to listen_.

after all, when one hears the same noise, the same cries, over and over again, it will, inevitably, start to sound like static.

* * *

when he meets his mother again, she’s had a new child. a child with one of the human scientists he’d known all his life.

he doesn’t know exactly what he expected. fear, too, perhaps, like their mother’s? watchful, like the scientists? but the little girl waddles over to him and hugs his leg instead.

“bwa-der!” _brother_. and she smiles up to him, and for the first time in his otherwise mind-numbing life, he feels something _else_. something else he has no word for.

they play, for a while, at the little girl’s insistence — his _sister_ ’s insistence.

he could see their mother watching from the farthest point in the room, looking at him terrified, and he can feel the stares from outside the glass windows lining the room.

he’s had a whole lot of time practicing ignoring them, but this time, it felt easier. it felt easier because there was a little girl who crawled and sat down on his lap and urged him to color her drawings with her.

he realizes immediately that some drawings were of _him_.

she babbles about how she’s very glad to see him, about what her favorite food was, and how much she _loves_ colors. she talks and prattles on as they continue drawing and coloring and he’s _content_.

he doesn’t ask her why she’s drawn him though, but before the scientists escort him out of the room, the strange little girl had beckoned him to come close and whispered to his ear, “i shaw you twain! bwader wassho cool! i twy wash nekush time!”

and for the first time in his life, he finds himself smiling.

if there was a sudden improvement in his training records, the scientists never said anything about it. they did, however, keep track of the new abundance of drawings in his sister’s room.

* * *

he has good days and bad days. bad days would consist of numerous things to fight and the word _again_ from the scientists who watch him. bad days would mean they would strap him to a table and give him a _thorough_ checkup, with needles and blood and sometimes, electricity. good days would consist of that too, minus the checkup. and because he has been _good_ lately, the scientists have been happy. _too_ happy, in fact, that he’s almost always in the training room and hasn’t seen his sister in so long.

that’s what he was thinking of until he enters his room and sees _her_ sitting on his bed. 

“brother!” she greets him with a smile and he frowns.

seeing the look he gives her, she pouts instead. “but brother didn’t visit me for so _long_!” she emphasizes, perhaps to guilt him. _definitely_ to guilt him.

he only sighs in reply, and she takes that as a sign of affirmation that she could stay in his room. she begins to talk on and on about different things — about her guardian and her guardian’s son, about how their mother was faring **—** as he tidies up his room to be preoccupied.

when he nears her, he sees ugly marks on her neck. _bruises_ , he realizes. a hand. someone had tried to strangle her — to _kill_ her.

he opens his mouth to ask, but she immediately reaches for his hand and tucks him in the bed. “sleepy time!” she proclaims, and snuggles up against him.

it doesn’t take long for her to fall asleep, and he follows her soon after.

when he dreams, he dreams of being _there_ as his sister was strangled. he watches, horrified, as she struggled. he wants to scream.

he opens his eyes to the scientists taking his sister away from him. he panics, and while vehemently refusing, holds on to her tightly as he fights them off.

they don’t go very far.

he feels a prick on his leg and he’s falling, her voice nearby as she kicked and thrashed and screamed his name. the last thing he sees is his sister biting a scientist’s hand. he feels himself smile just before he loses consciousness.

when he wakes up he’s strapped back at a table for another checkup. someone was talking to him about the rules he has broken, but he can’t care less. instead, he looks up at the ceiling and begins to _think_.

* * *

he makes sure he does well. he makes sure that the scientists find no fault with him, so he could ask them a favor. because he was such a _good boy_ , they agreed immediately.

he asks them if he can talk to his mother.

there is visible confusion on people’s faces — perhaps they expected him to ask to see his sister instead — but they let him, nonetheless.

his mother still had not changed — she still looks at him with the same apprehension the first time he remembers meeting her.

“i’m leaving soon,” he blurts out, even though that was not the reason he went to see her. maybe there’s a deep-seated corner in his mind that wants his mother to look at him as her child too.

her reply was soft, so soft, that he almost doesn’t hear what she says. “ _i know_.”

he sighs. he shouldn’t have expected anything from a woman who could barely look him in the eye.

“i’m not here for that though,” he informs her resolutely. “i’m here because of _her_. i want - no. she _needs_ to be out of here. she _has_ to.”

there’s a look of surprise on her face, at first. and then finally - she looks him in the eye. he watches as her expression shifts. something softer. _unafraid_. she nods.

together, they plan. to both of them, there is only one person more important than their lives. they’d sacrifice anything to keep her safe.

“ _you_ ,” she calls him before he leaves the room.

he turns to look at her, maybe too hopeful than he would ever want to admit.

“you grew up well.” she reaches out as if to touch him, but stops herself. “ _i’m sorry_.”

that wasn’t what he wanted to hear from her, but he’ll take what he can get. he gives her a nod.

that night, he dreams of them — the three of them, _together —_ as a family. they live in a quaint little house and there’s a flower garden in their backyard. when he wakes up, he holds on to the feeling. that what-could-have-been.

* * *

he helps with their escape. he leads her through corridors and rooms, places he’s memorized the layout of.

the alarm sirens blare. they run.

when they reach their mother she’s at a door with the id she’d swiped from the scientists. she’s trembling.

he hands his sister to their mother, who, in turn, picks the little girl up.

“they found out,” their mother says, eyebrows knit together, eyes darting around nervously.

he looks up at the red light signaling the high alert the building was under. “i’ll stay. buy you some time.” 

the older woman looks at him with wide eyes. “ _what_? but you said -”

“ _go_.” he insists and gives her a look. _since when did she care_?

there was a brief second of hesitation, and then she’s grabbing him by his arm, her nails digging into his skin. “i tried. i want you to know that i _tried_.”

he tries to shake her off. he really doesn’t want to hear -

“ _listen to me_ ,” she pleads, “just this time, listen to me. you are my son.” her eyes bore into him and he can’t help but nod at the weight she puts in the words. “whatever happens, _you are my son_.”

when she lets go he can feel his skin sting.

“brother?” and then his sister’s voice. she sounds _scared_. “you’ll come after us, right?”

he smiles at her.

she frowns and demands, “promise me you’ll come after us.”

he turns away from her before he replies. “i promise.”

he doesn’t watch them leave. he doesn’t trust himself enough to do that.

* * *

it’s not long after that when he’s deployed to fight in a war. a war that isn’t his own. in it he finds companions, friends, comrades. they fight, and they win.

 _the war hero._ there are praise and adoration everywhere he goes. not the one he wants, nor the one he needs.

at night he dreams of the people he had killed. the voices shriek and accuse him. _a coward_ , they yell, _murderer!_ and yet through it all, there’s always an invisible hand guiding him out of the darkness, out of the whirlwind of noises.

 _my son_ , he hears his mother say, _always_.

* * *

he's both alien and ancient. and that must be why his mother can’t look him in the eyes. he shouldn’t exist at all. jenova had been the cause of death of the cetra.

 _a miracle_ , a scientist had called him, once.

perhaps in his mother’s eyes, all she’d seen was a _monster_.

he’s at a loss on what to do. and so he walks. he walks, with no destination set in mind. he walks, and in his despair, finally realizes why the voices of the planet keep saying he’s _all wrong_.

he tries to listen to them again. and it’s hard because it’s a cacophony of voices telling him he’s a mistake, but they were _right_ all along. he _was_ a mistake. but amidst all the shrieks of discontentment, perhaps, even anger, he hears something else.

a small voice. a familiar one. _come find me_ , it says, _i’m here_.

he holds on to that voice. he follows it.

* * *

when he finally gathers his wits about him, he finds himself standing in front of an old, decrepit church. the door opens, and there’s a girl with bright green eyes, that he could recognize anywhere.

he feels the weariness to his bones, and he falls.

she rushes forward in a futile attempt to catch him, resulting instead with the both of them kneeling down in the dirt. she did manage, however, to hold him close.

“ _brother_ ,” she says the word in between a sob and a laugh. “you found me. you _found_ me.”

he smiles.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> -aeriseph as siblings have always been an interesting thing for me, maybe more interesting than any other relationship in the series? idk there’s something about big scary older sibling protective of sweet mischievous little sibling  
> -sephy was originally gonna be angrier aka he’d still be that person who’ll burn nibelheim, except this time… he has a sister?? lmao this sephy ended up just being tired.  
> -idk how this would end for either of them, ngl. jenova can still get ahold of him anytime, he can still start killing people and stuff. idk.


End file.
